If you haven’t played Dark Souls 3 yet, power stancing is gone but there are twin axes you can dual wield that also have a spin move that turns you into a Bayblade.
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Sold sold sold sold sold.
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Blooborne disappointed me, but that’s because I was really excited for a hunter/werewolf RPG, and they keep up the werewolf thing for the first four levels or so until they put that down to go deep into Lovecraft. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still really, really good, some of the best stuff From has made, but I can’t help but be a little sad that it took a turn from something I think is really cool to something I think isn’t as cool (but was still done very well.)
While I think that for all its flaws Demon’s Souls is probably one of their best games in terms of holistic experiences, I’m pretty glad that From gradually got better at teaching people how to actually play their games. I bounced off of Demon’s Souls despite investing a lot of time in it because I didn’t grasp the upgrade system–and continued not to until someone actually told me that upgrading your equipment is a good idea. Until then I was treating it like other RPGs, where you don’t want to waste upgrades because you’ll find a better weapon in the next level.
I think a pretty big reason people felt that Souls games fail to teach their mechanics or don’t resonate with some people is is because people tend to view them as action RPGs, rather than what’s predominantly a slow- paced action game with some RPG mechanics (leveling, more of a one-way difficulty slider than anything, moreso than in other games that let you gain power over time). Of course, there’s also some convoluted stuff, like DeS upgrade system which is just inexcusable but can be more safely ignored than in other games, at least.
I’d go as far as saying that people would have a much better time with the games if they simply forgot that it’s commonly described as an action RPG and focus more on the action aspect of it. Because that’s simply what it is to me: An action game. Maybe I just played these games way too much. The first person that I noticed shared this sentiment was Hbomberguy (I think the relevant video is linked in the op).
You’re not wrong, but even later Souls games do a much better job of explaining to players their mechanics than early Souls games. Having the blacksmith right in your hub area and having the player encounter upgraded equipment early on really helps tell the player “hey, upgrading your equipment is important.”
There’s still a bit of that in other games, but consider how the first chest you find in Dark Souls 3 (is a mimic, but) has an infused weapon in it, and in the very next area, you’ll find an infused and upgraded shield. Or the way that the lack of weapons to be found in Bloodborne encourages you to focus on one in particular, and so you’re more encouraged to invest in upgrading that weapon. It helps that they did away with the complicated systems of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls in 2, 3, and Bloodborne, even if I did think the system of “evolving” your weapon was neat.
Okay this axe is really great.
I’m now married to axes. We’re pregnant. The ultrasound shows that our baby is more axes. They will be assigned axe at birth but I will still love and support them if they self identify as a rapier.
Edit: I really love this ridiculous fucking axe but I gotta admit it is not as obscene or insane as my beloved Gyrm Axe. It has reasonable stat requirements and does not require me to go off the fucking deep end to live out my zany axe dreams. How dare it not enable me.
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I’m gonna be a butt here about Dark Souls 3:
I don’t like Siegward.
I don’t like how much a carbon copy of Siegmeyer he is.
I don’t like how he’s introduced rising on a platform as if to say “HEY REMEMBER THIS GUY!”.
I don’t like how the interesting parts of Yhorm’s plot is tied to his easily missed quest near the end.
The Sieg’s are cool & nice folks but I just really didn’t enjoy this weird not-Sieg coming back and having a mostly similar quest line to DS1.
Yeah, I feel if they wanted siegmeyer in the game they flat out shoulda just brought him back(He /can/ survive ds1, right?) instead of using what is essentially a clone. I hate his vague questline because aside from the first playthrough, I’ve never been able to proc him in the Yhorm fight because i always accidentally miss 1 last line of dialogue from Irithyll Manor.
Sorry for double post but I recently started a new playthrough in 3 in preparation for Ringed City(As I did with Ariandel) and am having a blast trying a weapon type I’ve never used before.
The Greataxe is absurd. Like ACTUALLY. It feels so extremely powerful and fun to use. Lots of stamina drain but at +6 and heavy infusion with the Sword Ring it’s doing 550(or close) one handed and without its weapon art. I two-hit the Pontiff Knights with it and since one staggers its basically an instakill for them, it feels nice after them destroying me every other playthrough. Only downsides are the extremely small range(But can still stagger outside its range!) and the very easy counter attacks from people.
That weapon art though, jesus. Two Handed warcry strong attack does around ~800.
Tempted to respec into a strength/mage character though, never really used magic in ds3.
Siegward is really bad. He’s there to capitalize on the player’s memories of Siegmeyer in Dark Souls, but he’s got a story that’s nowhere near as subtle, interesting or nuanced.
It’s a bit frustrating, because they could have done something interesting with him, playing with expectations. When you first meet him, he ends up saving you, and it turns out he’s actually really competent in a fight. If they’d continued that theme, they could have made a storyline that’s an inverse of Siegmeyer’s: he’d be too helpful, and you eventually have to tell him to stop helping you because you’re relying too much on him.
Instead what we got was him doing the same stuff Siegmeyer did, getting stuck in odd locations, until you finally find out that he’s Yhorm’s friend and has an identical copy of a weapon that used to be unique and used for a specific purpose in a specific area. And the description of that item lies to you.
He ends up as a frustrating overlap of two things, one from Dark Souls and one from Demon’s Souls, that were unique and special in their own games and got turned into nostalgia bait in Dark Souls 3.
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You mean the description lying to you about there being two Storm Rulers? Because it tells you there are exactly two in existence, one given to those who doubted him (the guy who probably came to kill him and failed, which is the one we pick up) and another one he gave to a dear friend (old Siggy)..
I actually liked Siegward as a whole. His only failing is that he’s wearing the Onion Knight set as well has having Siegmeyer’s voice actor, but I seem to be awfully good at looking past that.
No, it lies about being useful against giants. It isn’t, it’s only useful against Yhorm. There’s plenty of other giants in the game and it doesn’t work against them.
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Welcome my friend. Welcome to axe life.
:eyepop: :vince:
FromSoft, don’t make me choose!
…wait the twin axe just takes up one equipment slot.
…You can wield both. I can wield both.
https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=KXP5czmY1HE
Yes! Yes! Yes!
…finally someone that understands me.
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This is the first series to make me love the axes this much, I can’t wait to try the Winged Knight Axes. God I hope the next dlc gives another one. I need more!
Hot take, there are never not enough axes. Another game series where axes are great? Fire Emblem. Speaking of which, here’s a summary of a conversation I recently had with my niece regarding axe life:
Me: Axes are so pure and good. So silly and fun. Axe love. 
Her: Long swords ftw.
Me: 
You don’t deserve axes.
Her: Swords > Axes 
Me: 
How could you say such things. ALTERNATIVE FACTS!
Her: 
Fire Emblem knows what’s up.
Me: 
You dare to bring the weapon triangle into this?! Real Fire Emblem players know that a million swordsmen are nothing compared to a lovingly raised Gonzales or Largo. They would bench a dozen Ziharks and Stefans to chase the Marty dream. No amount of weapon triangle advantage is going to stop Hector from axeing you in the face.
Her: Who would win in a fight, Hector or Ike?
Me: Oh gosh, oh gee. That’s really hard.
Her: 
Me: Ike. But he uses an axe!
Her: !!! Damn!
Preaching the axe gospel over here.
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Hey, is it alright if people talking about non-mechanics-related content in games specify at the top of their post which game they’re talking about? I’m doing my best to still avoid information about Dark Souls 3 before I get to play it myself.
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A possibly weird question: is there some big downside of just shoving a Raw Gem in a high damage weapon? I know it removes damage scaling, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt my ability to slay foes at all so far.
Figured I’d ask as I went straight from Bloodborne (which I still need to finish the last leg of, I changed up after I got stuck on one of the DLC bosses) to Dark Souls 3, and only ever watched LPs of 1 and 2.
It’d only affect you late game, where(if youve pumped the dex and/or strength stats enough) the difference between raw and scaling damage is a gigantic leap, sometimes in 100s(i think). Raw is still useable, just not its full potential at that point.
Raw is mainly good in the early game or for int/fth builds that still want a physical damage weapon (recommended)
Some weapons lend themselves better to infusions, including Raw. One weapon that is all-around good for that stuff is the Astora Straight Sword for instance.
If you use a DEX or STR build, though, sharp or heavy will be the way to go at first. It’s always worth it checking how refined adds up by comparison because it overtakes sharp and heavy rather quickly.
Thanks for the replies. It seems like I’ll decide to either end up swapping out Gems once I start seeing a positive difference in scaling or stop being a shitty pyromancer, then.
EDIT: And by “shitty pyromancer” I mean I picked Pyromancer at the start and then ended up buying higher Strength and Dexterity than Intelligence and Faith anyway.